Tray-tastic

(bonus points if you can help me figure out where "tray-tastic" is from...it immediately popped in my head...as a variation of some Disney Junior song I believe...and now has been driving me crazy because I can't place it!  Amended: finally figured it out!  The original was "traintastic" in the Chuggington song...phew!)
It's funny how certain elements of your house seemingly go unnoticed.  Or maybe it's just me.  But take our living room tray for example.  I bought it eons ago, put it on the coffee table, and decorated it.  Despite the fact that I look at it many, many times throughout the day (it is in direct eyesight of the tv after all), I never really look at it.
Until I spotted a fresh, new tray at Target and immediately knew my old, outdated one had to go!  So I quickly ditched it, and in doing so, I also realized that many of the former tray's accessories were also blah!  Luckily I also spotted a really fun yellow mason-jar candle at Target.  And then I decided to try my hand at a little DIY terrarium of sorts.

My terrarium is probably not 100% legit.  I think it's supposed to have gravel and/or rocks on the bottom and again on the top, but I didn't have those things!  So I just put some soil in a container, added a few succulents, and called it a day!

And now my little coffee table centerpiece that I used to blissfully ignore is now worth of centerpiece placing!  I love having something fresh and alive in our living room...now, hopefully I can just keep up with it!

DIY Cherry Blossom Branches

Yesterday I showed you my spring mantle complete with its lovely cherry blossom branches.

Well, crafting them was totally easy peasy, so I figured I'd share the details with you.  

To make them, you'll need:

• pink tissue paper (about 5 sheets)
• scissors
• hot glue gun
• branches

To start, just stack your tissue paper and then cut out flower shapes.  I didn't use any kind of guide but just made a rough "flower."  You can tell by looking at these just how rough they were!  Luckily, it doesn't end up mattering! 

Once the shapes are all cut out, just gather each one in the center, twist it and gather it.  Again, no science to this...just twist, gather, and scrunch.  That's it!  

Take a dot of hot glue and smack them on the branches.

I told you these were easy!  And such a perfect spring decoration, right?  

Spring...Please?!?

I think all of us...or most of us anyways...will agree that this winter has been brutal!  Unbearably cold temperatures, multiple snow storms, and unrelenting ick!  And just when you think it may finally be over, the cold and the wet are back.  I, for one, am 1000% over it and waiting oh so anxiously for spring.
The good news?  After this weekend's latest plummet, temperatures for the foreseeable future are finally scheduled to be seasonable and even warm!!!  Holy crap, right?!?  I'm really, really hoping this is it.
To celebrate, I did what anyone would do...I put out our spring mantle!

First and foremost, do you notice how much better my pictures are now that I have my fancy-schmancy new camera?  I'm still definitely an amateur, but I'm loving it and am determined to figure it out completely.  

And secondly, how bout that mantle?  To me, spring is bright and happy, so I wanted to incorporate some color in our mantle.  My favorite part might just be that framed fabric that I had found last year.  The colors are not only perfect for spring, but perfect for our living room!

Like that fabric, all the other elements are from mantles past (or doors past as is the case with the wreath).  The only addition really is the "cherry blossom branches."  In case you haven't guessed, it's in quotes because they're actually just tissue paper cherry blossoms, but I'm pretty impressed with how they came out!

So weather-maker out there...I hope you get my message! My mantle is officially spring-ready, so bring on spring!

Holy Hell It's Cold Outside

There's no nice way to phrase it.  It's freaking freezing out there, colder than I can ever remember it being in Virginia Beach...and that's not just due to some memory lapse on my part; the weather folks have repeatedly reported that it was colder here this week than any other time in my lifetime!!!  Um, yeah, that's cold.
And we've already established that I hate, loathe, detest (pick a synonym) the cold.
So what's a girl to do when it's bitterly cold outside?  Well, craft of course.  And decorate.  And what could be more appropriate than to decorate for winter.
So first I gave our mantle its little seasonal transformation.  I had everything on hand and have used them all in past winter mantles.  To me, winter is minimal.  And I feel like the mantle kind of goes along with that.  Not a whole lot of flare, but a few little touches.

I did put a bit more effort into a wreath, though...mainly because when I pulled out our old one it was a bit beaten up.  To create a new one, I just made a whole bunch of white yarn poms and then used pins to secure them into a wreath shape I happened to have on hand.

It was a pretty basic process, but all told I needed about 50 poms to get the full wreath that I wanted (I didn't bother with the back side since it would just be laying against the door anyway).  Considering it was too cold to do just about anything else, though, I didn't mind!  And in the end, I was really happy with the result!

I told you I think of winter as minimal, so speaking of minimal that's about as far as my winter decorating got!  I really didn't have any other inspiration, so other areas of the abode that may sometimes get some seasonal touches (ie: the kitchen, the dining room, our entry console) just went untouched.  Oh well.
Maybe I'll feel more inspired when the temperatures climb back to the 60s this weekend...welcome to winter in Virginia Beach!

Holiday House Tour 2013

As promised, I am back today to finally reveal to you our completed holiday decor.  You've barely been able to sleep I know!  So without further ado...
Let's start at the entrance.  Returning this year are our little tomato cage Christmas trees, although this year I think I finally got them right after having mismatched ones last year.  Our classic ornament wreath also returns.  I think I bought it for Josh and my first official Christmas, which makes it a whopping six years old!  And finally, we also have our little dog.  The boys, both dog lovers, picked it out last year at Home Depot, and I had to oblige.  Now they get really excited whenever we walk by it, whether it's lit up or not, so even though it may not be the prettiest element in our decor, it will probably be around for a long time!

Once you enter, to the right you will see our console table decorated with our dreidel/ornament tree.  If you remember our Hanukkah decor, you will remember the dreidels.  I wanted to keep some homage to Hanukkah up, so I just added some ornaments to the branches, switched out the vase, and called it a day.

To the left is our dining room where another old faithful, our ornament tree, is displayed on a charger from Target.  The table still totally needs a runner, but it may never get one, so...

You may also have noticed my dyed bottle brush trees peeking out on the buffet.  I already showed them to you earlier this week, but they make me happy so I'll show them to you again.

Beyond the dining room is our kitchen with a few little touches like our ribbon card displays which also hold some of our past holiday cards and Santa photos.  

In the kitchen is also our ornament advent calendar.  Both the boys have fake trees in their rooms and the idea was to have them alternate putting an ornament on their tree each day.  Well, of course I should have realized both would want to put up an ornament each day.  I can explain to Colton that it's not his turn, but Levi isn't as good at accepting that fate.  So with about 13 days to go until Christmas, we have 8 ornaments left...I guess I'll be making two advent calendars next year!

Beyond the kitchen is the living room and the pinnacle of our holiday decorating!  I must say our mantle is one of my most favorite ever.  It's bright, happy, and festive...if I don't say so myself!

The living room is also where we keep our tree.  The Jewish girl in me absolutely adores our tree.  I love the smell of it, seeing its lights at night, and just having this little piece of sentimentality on display.  It's probably one of my favorite parts of celebrating Christmas is having the tree in the house! 

I know a lot of people (well, not in real life, but on Pinterest at least...) who have perfectly color-coordinated trees, but the tree is one place where I choose to sacrifice style for meaning.  Our tree is only filled with ornaments we have collected over the years, most of which have some sort of personal significance.  I just love looking them over and seeing ones we've bought...or made like the photo cubes I've done for the boys each year

And I get really excited to add new ones I know we will cherish for years to come, like this adorable fingerprint reindeer ornament Levi made for us at school.  (He was supposed to wait to give it to us on Christmas, but didn't really understand that concept and tore open the bag as soon as he got home...)

And finally to add to the merriment in our living room, I decided to wrap our oversized frames that flank the couch.  Just for a little more holiday cheer...

So there you have it.  Our halls are officially decked, and we are officially in full-on holiday mode...and loving every second of it.  

Handmade Holidays Round 2: Snowflake Wreath

Yesterday I kicked off my second annual handmade holidays installment by showing you my dyed bottle brush trees.
For today's reveal, I share with you my snowflake wreath.

 It all started as I got my mantel finished up.  The space, namely my cherished window mirror, was begging for some up high decoration and immediately wreath entered my mind.  But I was stuck for a few days on what kind of wreath would work in the space.  As you will see in a couple days, the mantle was already pretty bright and shiny, so something natural didn't really seem to fit, but then again I didn't really want to do an ornament one (although I love them!) because I felt like it would be too much.  I happened to have about a dozen glittered snowflake ornaments left over from some ornaments I had bought at Target...some this year and some past years.
All I needed, then, was a wreath shape which luckily I found at the Dollar Store.  I spray painted the floral foam gold quickly, and then hot glued the snowflakes on in two overlapping layers.  Most were gold, but some were silver.  We had both already incorporated in the mantle, so I figured it worked.

 And now that it is up on my window, I must say it was a good choice!  I love, love, love my little wreath and think it's such a cute addition to my "window."

Like most things I manage to accomplish, this project was so unbelievably easy and budget friendly!  It took me all of 5 minutes (plus about an hour to let the spray paint dry) and cost $1 considering I had all the snowflakes on hand!
Make sure to check back tomorrow for my next handmade holidays project.

Handmade Holidays Round 2: Dyed Bottle Brush Trees

Last year around this time, I had DIYed a handful of holiday decor projects and decided to share them with you all one at a time.  I hadn't really planned to do a repeat version this year because I thought my projects from last year would suffice.  I should have known, though, that once I stared decorating, I would inevitably feel the need to tackle a few projects...which I have done over the last week or so since Hanukkah ended!  And now, I will spend the next few days sharing them with you all before the grand reveal of our holiday decor on Friday (I know, so exciting, right?!?).
First up on the reveal docket...my dyed bottle brush trees.

A couple years back, I bought a ton of those little bottle brush trees and bleached them for a display.  I liked them enough, but last year they failed to make an appearance in our holiday decor.  *(By the way, if you need a tutorial on bleaching them, I am pretty sure I have one here or just google it...they're everywhere!).  And when I took them out this year, I felt like they needed a bit more umph if I was going to include them.  I figured there must be an easy way to get them dyed, so I started researching.  And in doing so, I came across a really easy tutorial using Rit dyes (any color you want...I wanted greens and blues) and spray bottles.  Basically, you just put some water and some dye in the spray bottles and squirt down each tree (make sure you lay out paper underneath!).

Well, that process was just about as easy as it sounds, but I was a little disappointed that I couldn't get the colors to be more of the modern varieties that I enjoy (bright green, teal, sky blue, etc).  So I experimented and decided to use food coloring n the last couple trees I had left.  Same process: just put a few drops of food coloring into one of the spray bottles, fill it about half way with water, and squirt away.  Well guess what?!?  It totally worked!

So from now on, I am totally on the food coloring path.  I like the colors better (especially the "neon" variety). They're easier to combine colors.  And they're way cheaper, especially because there's a good chance you already have them on hand.

I already am thinking I'm going to have to add to my little collection...maybe once they go on sale after the holidays!  And maybe in some more colors (purples, pinks, yellows, reds...aahh the possibilities!).  Either way, I'm much more excited about them than my boring white ones.

A Quick Hanukkah Mantle

In years past, I have just done one "holiday" mantle.  But truth be told, the holiday mantle is a Christmas mantle with a lone menorah somewhere scattered on it!  With Hanukkah so early this year, though, I decided we should let the eight days of Hanukkah have their very own special Hanukkah mantle.

Honestly, the whole thing was pretty easy to accomplish considering I mainly used our leftover Thanksgiving decorations + said menorah.  But I did create a simple yarn pom pom garland to add a little bit more Hanukkah pizazz to whole thing.

If you're curious how to make the pom garland, it's actually amazingly easy.  Just wrap yarn around your first three fingers about 75-100 times and cut the yarn.  At the same time, cut an additional 4-6 inch strand of yarn.  Slip the yarn off from around your fingers carefully so as to keep the shape in place roughly.  Line the strand up around the center of your yarn formation and tie it tightly all the way around.  Now just snip all the loops and fluff!  Voila!  I couldn't find a needle to string the poms on to another piece of yarn, so I just unfolded a paper clip and it did the trick.

I also added a couple other touches throughout the house like this "menorah" on the dining room table (all candles were already owned).

And our Hanukkah tree by the front door that I created by hanging dreidels from the same branches that  were once our Thankful tree.

I'll be honest in saying the decor isn't my favorite ever or anything, but I think it plays nice homage to the Festival of Lights.  And considering it will only be up for about a week, I think the proper amount of money and effort were exerted on it!

$1 Table Runner

Last week I showed you my Thanksgiving mock set up, but hinted that changes were coming.  In fact, I even told you I had some plans to make the boring table runner a little more exciting.  Truth be told, the table runner wasn't actually a "runner" per se...it's actually just a roll of Dollar Store white wrapping paper.  And actually, it's just half of that roll (cut width-wise).  So to make it a bit prettier I just used one of those Martha Stewart paper punchers.  They're available in all kinds of designs, so I just picked the one I liked the most.

Now here's the thing.  I'm pleased with the result. And even more pleased with the price.  I have long realized that investing in fancy decorating items does me no good because I don't want to use them the second time around (hence the piles of fancy place mats and napkin rings I bought one Thanksgiving 5 years ago and have never used again!), so this is a perfect solution for me.
But like most DIY projects that save you a few bucks, this one definitely was a bit more of a headache than I anticipated.  The biggest problem was that .my wrapping paper kept getting stuck in the punch after I used it.  Eventually, I figured out that the paper may have been too flimsy and I started doubling it up with some cardstock I had on hand (and could be wasted!) which definitely helped alleviate the problem...although it did get stuck a few more times beyond that!  Once I got the hang of moving the cardstock with the wrapping paper, making sure both were aligned straight, and punching, the project actually went fairly quickly.
That being said I did have a few more issues with Miss Martha's product (I know, blasphemy!).  The punch definitely required a bit of muscle behind it.  That's probably not a big deal when you're just using it for a punch here or there, but to do both sides of a 6 foot runner it got a bit tiring!
  Plus, towards the end of my second runner (we're hosting 23 people, so we need 3 tables), it started jamming after every single punch.  Luckily, I was near the end of the second one, so I finished it off and then just decided to ditch the third one!
I also found the spacing hard to judge...as you can probably tell from the picture above.  Maybe it's just me, but the way the punch is made makes it hard to judge where to place it to evenly space it.  Towards the end, I kind of got the hang of it, but there are definitely places that are spaced further apart than others...oh well!
And finally, the punch does not have anything on it to catch the paper it cuts out, so it leaves quite the mess.I would dump the scraps every few times, and certainly tried to contain the mess to a small area of the table, but there was still a big mess on the floor...enough that I even had to bring the vacuum out.  And I hate the vacuum!
All in all, though, the runners cost $1 so I probably can't complain too much!                                                                                                                                                                      

DIY Gold Mercury and Gold Ombre

Um...how is Thanksgiving only a week away?!?  It's even relatively late this year, and I'm still in shock that we're already here!!!  We will be hosting the big dinner at our house this year, so I've been busy plotting menu, decor, seating, and all things Turkey Day!
As I started coming up with inspiration for place settings and tablescapes, I was instantly drawn to metallics, especially when mixed with natural elements (kind of like our mantle...which works so I won't have to worry about changing it!).  I actually have burlap tablecloths on hand, so I won't have to worry about that part either.  But I did need some things for table centerpieces.
So I headed out to the Dollar Store and picked up some taller vases and smaller vases.  I also picked up a can of gold spray paint, so I could get all this glass looking gold!
While I did find some tutorials for the mercury, I pretty much winged it on both projects...and they both turned out pretty good (I think).  So here's the basics of how to do them:
Gold Mercury
Spray the inside of your container with gold spray paint.  Repeat 3-4 times.  Allow to dry 10 minutes or so in between coats.  Allow them to dry for at least an hour. Use a spray bottle to squirt apple cider vinegar into the vases or just put a little apple cider vinegar on a paper towel.  Either way, you're aiming for random areas where the paint will flake off when scrubbed.  I had read of people struggling, but mine actually came off easily...almost too easily, so if yours does that, just scrub at your own discretion.  Spray the inside again with gold paint, and then repeat the vinegar removal process, choosing some new spots and some old spots.  I did this 3 more times total, but just kind of wing it and stop when you're satisfied with how your "mercury" looks.  I suggest putting a candle in it (I used an electric one), so you can really see how it will look all lit up when trying to decide if you're done!

Gold Ombre
These were inspired by some silver ombre drinking glasses I saw at Target.  I loved them, but I'm not really doing silver...and Josh probably wouldn't have been a fan of me buying all new drinking glasses for Thanksgiving when we already have some!  So, I decided to recreate the look and make them vases instead.  So simple by the way.  Basically, I taped off each vase at about 4 inches down (I didn't measure...just eyeballed it) and gave it few coats of gold spray paint, letting it dry about 10 minutes in between.  Then, I taped off another few inches down, and just gave it one light coat of spray paint...from about a foot away... and voila!

I was so excited about my new gold accessories that I decided to give my Thanksgiving table (well one of them...we have 16 people coming so far, so we're going to need to bring in a couple more!) a test run.  

It still has a way to go obviously...like adding actual flowers to the vases and candles to the votives, jazzing up the runner (which is really just wrapping paper), adding some pizazz to the place settings, and hopefully even finding better/larger pumpkins (or something else) for the center, but I think it's working out pretty well!  And considering everything was either previously owned or from the Dollar Store, I'm feeling pretty good about our budget for it as well:)  With a week to go, I'm thinking we may actually be ready when the big day arrives!

The Easiest Fabric Pumpkins Ever

Decorating is just one of those things that tends to come to me.  I generally don't start out with much of a plan, but as I start playing with things, I get little epiphanies and ah-ha moments and eventually the whole thing just clicks.  Take my fall mantle for example.  I told you yesterday that I just couldn't get it right: too bold, too white, too sparkly, etc.  And then I had an epiphany: I needed some fabric pumpkins in there that would both tone it down some and add some excitement!  

Naturally, I turned to Pinterest for a quick tutorial on how to make them.  But as I read through each of them, I kept thinking they seemed way harder than necessary.  So I decided to just wing it!  And about 3 seconds later per pumpkin, it had all worked out!

  These are so unbelievably easy, and while I stuck to fabric I already had on hand for budgeting reasons, I'm already dreaming of creating some more of these next year with better prints and patterns!  

Wanna make some of your own?  All you need is:

• scissors
• Fabric...cut to square-ish size of your choice (I went with about 18x18 for the bigger one)
• rubber bands...two per pumpkin
• poly-fil (although you could also use beans to weight them a bit more)
• glue gun optional
• yarn optional

To make them, cut out your square of fabric.  Twist up the middle of the square and use a rubber band to secure it.

Stuff as much poly-fill in there as you want and then start gathering the fabric towards the top.  Try to overlap the fabric slightly to create the vein look of pumpkin.  Secure with a rubber band at the top.

Cut off some of the extra fabric at the top to leave a nice, short stump of a stem.  

Of course, if you have any fly away pieces, you can always use a dot of hot glue to secure them down.  

Now, my pumpkins were going to be kept on the mantle and never rally viewed up close, so I got real lazy and stopped there.  But if you wanted to hide the unsightly rubber band, you could very easily just wrap the stem in yarn.  And while you're at it, you could also use the yarn to accentuate the veins!  

So there you have it.  Seriously, this is about the easiest craft project you could do!